Paul Graham, The Fierce Nerd Eater. Feed him fierce nerds. Many will be chewed and spit out. Some will succeed. Like highly competitive athletes (even more so, some become billionaires!). Those spit out need help with mental health.
Or maybe instead of abusing mentally fragile people, we need something a bit more healthy.
We need to make it honorable to fail and those that fail get the help they need. We need to make the harms as small as possible and the benefits as broadly shared as possible. But many nerds trying many things don't need to be fierce. We can have many experiments with cooperation not competition. We need decentralization not centralization.
Or maybe instead of abusing mentally fragile people, we need something a bit more healthy.
We need to make it honorable to fail and those that fail get the help they need. We need to make the harms as small as possible and the benefits as broadly shared as possible. But many nerds trying many things don't need to be fierce. We can have many experiments with cooperation not competition. We need decentralization not centralization.